Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Beat 7 eggs very lightly, leaving the whites of 2 eggs unused.
Gradually mix the eggs with 1 quart of milk and ½ cup of sugar.
Place the mixture in a dish, set it in a pot of boiling water, and boil.
Add your choice of flavoring.
Remove from heat immediately upon boiling to prevent curdling.
Top and serve
Whip the reserved egg whites with 2 heaping tablespoons of sugar.
When the custard cools, top it with the whipped egg whites.
If serving in cups, garnish each with a strawberry or a bit of red jelly.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Thicken the milk into a custard as they set with gentle heat.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries its richness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and balances the flavor of the eggs and milk.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar to form a light, airy topping for the cooled custard.
The step that matters
Remove from heat immediately upon boiling. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated, so the custard must be taken off the heat as soon as it boils to stay smooth.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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